Revenge Of The Hair: How About Varejao To Suns?

The Suns have a known PF/C problem. They need someone who can play defense and guard mobile bigs out to the 3-pt line. Lopez and Frye (don't laugh, it's true) can guard the paint enough to get by. As far as our other PFs... Warrick does not have a defensive reputation. Neither does Turkoglu (though he doesn't hurt a defense either). And Clark and Lawal are not seasoned enough to play big minutes this year.

But today I had another idea. Cheaper, less talented, but easier to acquire: Cleveland's Anderson Varejao

He's a 6'11" mobile big man known for his ability to play defense, though he has trouble scoring. Kind of a more-mobile version of Lopez with a lower offensive ceiling. However, his defense makes up for it.

Cleveland, on the other hand, has not signed a single free agent, and may - with the talent they have - want to shoot for a high lottery pick instead. Varejao's defense and effort would hinder that goal more than help. With Andy, Cavs likely get a pick in the 8-13 range. Without Andy, the Cavs can dump away and...the sky's the limit. And next year's draft is top heavy: there's a guy projected #1 who reminds many of a LeBron type (Harrison Barnes).

And here's the big kicker, for Suns fans: salary-wise, we can get him for the remaining part of the Amare trade exception. Would Cleveland take the salary savings and a future #1?

HOWEVER, that would give the Suns 11 - eleven! - players who deserve 20+ minutes a night. Too deep, I believe, not to give away someone later and that always leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

So it might be better to swing JRich at them. JRich with Earl Clark. We would have to take back another 6-7 mil in salaries to make it work. One could be Delonte West (who could be waived for all but 500K of his 4mil expiring deal), the other could be Boobie Gibson. Little Boobie can hit 3s and not much else, but we may need to take him back to swing JRich over that way. But even with this trade, Suns still have 11 players in the rotation. They would STILL have the Amare exception though, in case of injury, and plenty of room under the lux tax to pick someone up later (ie. Gortat from Orlando, if Lopez goes down; or a SG if we need depth there due to injury).

Either way, the Suns would net an elite defender and rebounder (higher rebound rate than ANYONE currently on the Suns) who is 6'11" and moves well.

And finally: the Suns would have the best hair in the NBA, between Lopez, Chill and Varejao.